🚧 Market Street transformation | Morning Newsletter
And Atlantic City cannabis lounges.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hi, Philly. There’s lots of news to get to on this likely-rainy Wednesday.
A historic $16 million Market Street transformation has begun in Old City, with traffic and parking restrictions expected through 2026. And after months of “radio silence,” Atlantic City’s empty cannabis lounges may open in 2025. Plus, why do Philly’s coffee shops close earlier than other cities’?
Read on for these stories and many more.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Market Street in Old City will become an easier place to walk, bike, and eat by the country’s semiquincentennial, thanks to a transformation project that kicked off Tuesday. But Philadelphians can expect some headaches in the meantime.
🚧 The project spans Second to Sixth Streets. Changes will include protected bike lanes, reduced vehicle lanes, intersection bump outs, and a newly constructed plaza for the Chief Tamanend statue.
🚧 Construction will likely snarl traffic and restrict parking until it’s complete by summer 2026.
🚧 The upgrades are part of a broader rethinking of Philly’s historical district that would include new green spaces and improved navigability between sites, especially for those traveling by foot and bike.
Reporter Frank Kummer has the details on what to expect from this travel lane “rebalancing.”
If state regulators move quickly enough, cannabis consumption lounges could open in New Jersey in 2025.
Dispensary owners who have been waiting nearly a year for permission to open a lounge finally got word last week that applications will open as soon as January. Meanwhile, some have already spent big on spaces they built out, but can’t yet operate.
“Disappointment and frustration are the two words I would use to describe the situation,” one proprietor said. “There’s at least a little bit of positivity in the fact that we now have a timeline.”
It’s the latest phase in Atlantic City’s journey to becoming Jersey’s premier weed destination — even as some dispensary owners worry that the local market may already be oversaturated.
Reporter Henry Savage has the story.
What you should know today
A Philadelphia woman who disappeared in 2000 has been identified by prosecutors as the seventh victim of the alleged Gilgo Beach killer.
The two burglars who allegedly killed a Lower Merion man and grievously wounded his mother “simply got the wrong house,” Montgomery County’s DA said.
A North Philadelphia man’s murder conviction was overturned after 29 years in prison. Now he is suing the city for allegedly withholding evidence from his lawyers.
The Northeast Philly woman who stowed away on an international flight was arrested again, this time at the Canadian border as she attempted to flee the United States.
In contrast to the death threats, slate of fake electors, and masks of four years ago, the Pennsylvania Electoral College cast their 19 votes for President-elect Donald Trump without controversy Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans still hasn’t voted since his May stroke, but says he’ll be back in January.
After eight years as Delaware governor, John Carney is downsizing to become the mayor of Wilmington — a rare career move.
More than 5,000 drone sightings the FBI investigated in New Jersey ended up being other aircraft or stars, federal agencies said Monday. (Here’s the latest on the “mystery drones” phenomenon.)
Cedar Park’s Calvary United Methodist Church was granted historic protections despite a long campaign against such regulation by the building’s owner.
Westtown taxpayers will spend $100,000 an acre to turn Crebilly Farm, the past home of an Acme heir, into a park.
Where is a caffeine-deprived Philadelphian to find their fix late at night, or even in the evening? Besides bars and restaurants — which might have a dormant espresso machine, if you’re lucky — options are limited.
Coffee shops in the city are open an average of two to four hours fewer than peer cities. South Broad Street’s Solar Myth and East Falls’ Le Bus are notable exceptions, and they double as full-service bars.
Managers at local shops told The Inquirer there’s just not enough demand for coffee service beyond, say, 4 p.m. But if the opportunity were available, customers might come to appreciate the late-night cafe as a third space.
Sip on this story about why Philly has so few nighttime and evening cafe options.
🧠 Trivia time
The Brutalist, the decades-spanning drama nominated for several Golden Globes, is set in Philadelphia and Doylestown — but was mostly filmed where?
A) Boston
B) Hungary
C) Hawaii
D) Vancouver
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🍣 Remembering: The 15 biggest Philly food stories of 2024, from the omakase boom to the death of dollar-dog night.
📪 Learning about: The U.S. Postal Service’s Philadelphia roots amid threat of privatization.
📽️ Watching: These Philly-tied films added to the National Film Registry.
🏳️🌈 Considering: How to protect LGBTQ rights in Pennsylvania.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Sports mascot resembling a blue dog
LARK FINN
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Joe DeSanto, who solved Tuesday’s anagram: Larry Fine. The space beneath the Three Stooges actor’s iconic mural on South Street will become Taste Taco Bar this spring.
Photo of the day
🎅 One last special thing: Every kid in city schools got a holiday gift from The Philly Specials. Some were even delivered in person by the athletic singers themselves. (Also in attendance: Comedian Pete Davidson, who spent the weekend with the Eagles and the Sixers. Does this mean he’s a Philly guy now?)
Have a good one. I’ll see you tomorrow, same time and place.
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